


Halloween Fun

by DarthUmbreon (SperoDeoVolente)



Series: Holidays [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Day of the Dead, Decorating, Fluff, Halloween, Holidays, M/M, Romance, There is beer at stake, not evil reaper/gabriel actual good r76
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-17
Updated: 2016-09-17
Packaged: 2018-08-15 11:59:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8055445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SperoDeoVolente/pseuds/DarthUmbreon
Summary: Jack and Gabriel bond over a decorating contest while stationed together in SEP. In which fluff happens.





	Halloween Fun

Halloween is a season full of fond, happy memories for Jack. It means the best part of fall. When the leaves are all sorts of shades, a crispness is in the air, and the scent of winter rides on the breeze. Crazy decorations cover nearly house. Fake spiders, ghosts made from ruined sheets, Jack O’ Lanterns, plastic rats perched on window sills and so much more. Kids dress up in costumes running around without a care beyond getting candy. Pumpkin spice is found in every possible American food, a stable of the season. Honestly Halloween it is his favorite holiday.

While in SEP, Jack never had the time to celebrate his favorite holiday. Everything ran on a tight schedule. The best he could hope for was a cheap cupcake with orange frosting, to mark the season not the actual holiday, from the mess hall. To save on space everyone has to share a room. His roommate, one Gabriel Reyes is a mystery to Jack. He never really gets in Jack’s way, but isn’t overly friendly either. They rarely talk beyond the bare basics needed to survive rooming together. On the training grounds they are equals who train, and fight, side by side. 

However, they go back to being basically strangers once training is done and they aren’t forced to get along. Reyes does not encourage small talk, no matter how often Jack tries to get more than a sentence from his roommate. That doesn’t stop him from trying, however. After a year into the program Jack has since adjusted to his mostly one sided conversations with Reyes. If he’s lucky, Reyes gives him a whole sentence instead of a grunt as a reply to his never ending chatter. If Jack were being honest, and he rarely does when it comes to these sorts of things, he is constantly talking because he can’t stand the silence. It doesn’t matter if Reyes doesn’t talk back, at least the room isn’t silent. It came as a surprise to Jack when Reyes actually spoke to him about two weeks before Halloween.

“Morrison if you would shut up for five seconds,” Reyes growls, voice barely holding back thinly veiled impatience. “You would learn that there is a dorm room decorating contest. The best decorated room wins a keg of beer. Some bigwigs idea for a morale boost.” Brown eyes stare deep into Jack’s blue, keeping him pinned in place.

“Ugh...right. You want me to decorate the room then?” Jack inquires, heart beating fast. Gabriel Reyes is a very attractive, and Jack thinks about him in ways he shouldn’t all things considered. Any prolonged stare from Gabriel always make Jack freeze in place, stunned by the sheer intensity rolling off his roommate. Damned man knows it too, and pins Jack in place when he needs to say something important. 

“I’d like to win. You’re obsessed with this overblown American holiday. You’d be the best at decorating the room according to the standards that will get us a win.” That being said, Gabriel releases Jack by looking back at his book.

“Will do!” Jack blinks a bit as the effect of the man’s intense look is lifted. He is a tab bit surprised that Gabriel knew about his love for all things Halloween. It would imply that his roommate doesn’t ignore his one sided conversations, but actually listens. That night, as Jack lays in bed, thinking best how to decorate their room he can’t stop thinking about Gabriel instead. He wonders what standards would please Gabriel instead of what they need to do for a win. Their CO is older, very traditional in the American Way. The man reminds Jack of his uncles in fact. All he has to do is decorate their room like his Uncle Ben would his yard, and BAM! A certain win. 

Doubts wiggle in his heart, bringing his thoughts back to Gabriel. What would sort of decorations would please him? This presents a problem to Jack. Gabriel wants to win, the man is competitive to his very core. Nothing short of a crushing victory would make him happy. Still, his standards aren’t the winning ones or he would take charge of decorating. Forgoing sleep, Jack racks his mind for what would bring a smile to Gabriel’s face. He knows that Gabriel is from L.A., and his family speaks Spanish. Quietly as possible, Jack pulls his phone off his desk. Not wanting to disturb Gabriel’s sleep, he researches how Halloween is celebrated in Mexico on his phone. That opens his world to Día de Muertos. Hours go by as he reads up on what Gabriel considers Halloween. It doesn’t take him long to see why Gabriel put him in charge. Almost everything about Día de Muertos would cause his uncles to sneer in disdain. Almost nothing about it would net them a win. Still, he refuses to give up on the idea of both winning, and getting a smile out Gabriel. Exactly two minutes before his alarm is due to off, an idea comes to Jack. One hand turns off the alarm before it goes off. Plan in mind, Jack gets ready for the day. 

As the days go by, Jack buys the standard stuff he would use for decorating. Every day he adds more of what he considers standard Halloween decorations. With each addition, he can see Gabriel nod his head in approval. Nothing Jack adds, however, brings a smile to Gabriel’s face. What he does do while Gabriel isn’t in the room, is use blacklight reactive paint to make decorations that properly honor Día de Muertos. With painstaking care, Jack researches the holiday, and what would be considered a proper way to celebrate it. More than once he asks online in various forums about how to decorate for it. Once he is dead certain he has the correct decorations, made by hand in secret, he puts them up in privacy. Under normal light, and in darkness, the room looks like a miniature haunted house. Kept hidden in his sock drawer are several blacklight light bulbs. 

As the CO goes room to room, making non verbal grunts at each room he enters. The grunt is given behind a quickly buried smile at Morrison and Reyes room. Jack holds up a hand for a high five. Gabriel just rolls his eyes, but returns the high five. At the end of the judging round, Morrison and Reyes are awarded a keg of beer. As an additional perk, the CO gives them the evening and next day off to celebrate. As Gabriel is fetching the keg, Jack swaps out the light bulbs. 

“Damn, Morrison. Good job with the decorating. Won us the beer, and time off.” Gabriel doesn’t smile at him, but there is approval in those brown eyes. Gabriel is busy prepping the keg for them to share.

“There’s more, Reyes,” Jack says glee in his tone evident, his eyes sparkling at his surprise. “Watch this.” Then he turns on the lights, the entire room changing.

“Dios Mio, Morrison.” Gabriel’s voice is soft, eyes wide with awe. A smile tugs slowly at his lips, but as he turns around looking at the room the smiles grows until it takes over his entire face. 

“I thought that you’d like to have it decorated for Día de Muertos and win.” Jack melts inside at the look on Gabriel’s face. He made Gabriel smile like that, and it felt good. 

“Morrison, you did all this extra work….for me?” Gabriel turns that gaze on him, the look of awe turning into something else, something more. 

“Yeah, I did Reyes.” Blush hot on his face, Jack curls his toes at the look directed at him. Thoughts and feelings Jack didn’t want to process come up strong. 

“Gabriel, call me Gabriel.” There is a different tone in his room mates tone, one that causes warmth to grow in his heart, a heat to grow in Jack’s stomach, and both feelings spread south. 

“Same goes for you, call me Jack.” Jack returns the look without knowing.

The two of them sit down side by side on Gabriel’s bed. They share beer and stories late into the night. Things are different now, and they know it. Jack adds a new reason for Halloween to be his favorite holiday.

**Author's Note:**

> This came about due to much talk about sad dads, sad dad fic ideas, and much need for fluff. So here is the promised fluff to be used as a security blanket against the sad dad always being sad.
> 
> EDIT - Yes, I know the differences between the two holidays. Dia de los Muertos =/= Halloween. However, I couldn't fit in full cultural differences with a proper exposition dump and keep this short and fluffy. The point being, Jack wanted to make Gabriel smile, and researched what he knows about "Spanish Halloween", nice white bread boy that he is. So he did research proper, and had Gabe be included while still pulling off a win.


End file.
